I like Donald Trump’s formulation that the suicide bomber in Manchester was a “loser.” The traditional ritualistic public insult of a suicide terrorist is “coward,” and frankly, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Bill Clinton called the U.S.S. Cole bombers cowards; seems to me that it takes some huervos the putter a little rubble boat full of explosives up to a U.S. Navy destroyer and blow yourself to kingdom come.

Losers, on the other hand, is demonstrably, consistently true of these attackers. These suicide terrorists in the West are not straight-A students of a religious bent from middle class families; they tend to be petty criminals with shoddy work histories and histories of quite irreligious types of violence. Life is cheap, their own lives most of all, and they wrap themselves in some religion-themed cause they looked up on the internet to give their miserable suicides the gloss of importance.